MM August 2016 Final



MODERN MINING

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August 2016

COPPER

xplaining the history of the Kamoa

project, Friedland says that Ivan-

hoe’s geologists started the initial

exploration programme at Kamoa

in 2003, at which point it was noth-

ing more than an unknown grass-roots pros-

pect generated by Ivanhoe’s geological team

and covered with a thin layer of Kalahari sand,

sitting in a previously unrecognised district

within the Central African Copperbelt.

“We made our initial significant discovery

at Kamoa in 2008,” he says. “The quest, which

by 2013 showed that Kamoa is the world’s larg-

est, undeveloped, high-grade copper discovery,

took more than 12 years of dogged explora-

tion, dedicated geological and geotechnical

expertise and a total investment of several hun-

dred million dollars.

“Our perseverance and eventual success in

unlocking Kamoa’s world-scale potential was

recognised by the Prospectors & Developers

Association of Canada in March 2015 with the

presentation of the prestigious Thayer Lindsley

International Discovery Award to key members

of the Ivanhoe Mines exploration team.

“However, given the remarkable exploration

success we have had to date at the Kakula dis-

covery, as it has been progressively revealed

during the past year, we believe that this

new copper discovery is substantially richer,

thicker and more consistent than other miner-

alisation that we have found elsewhere on the

Kamoa project. The results speak volumes: the

Kakula discovery is a complete game changer

in our planning for the development of the

Kamoa project.”

Kamoa’s indicated mineral resources pres-

ently total 752 Mt grading 2,67 % copper and

containing 44,3 billion pounds of copper at a

1 % copper cut-off grade and minimum thick-

ness of 3 m. The project also has inferred

Kakula

could be “Africa’s most

significant copper discovery”

Boxcut and surface facilities

at Kansoko Sud. The

Kakula exploration area is

approximately 10 km south-

west of Kansoko Sud.

Ivanhoe Mines has announced assay results from an ad-

ditional eight holes of its ongoing drilling campaign at its

Kakula discovery at its Kamoa copper project near the min-

ing centre of Kolwezi in the DRC’s Katanga Province. Com-

menting on the results, Robert Friedland, Executive Chair-

man of TSX-listed Ivanhoe, says that Kakula could prove to

be Africa’s most significant copper discovery.

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